The Jerusalem Bombing: My Terrifying Personal Experience

“Jenny, where are all the kids?” my husband asked me in a voice tense with panic just after 3 PM this past Wednesday afternoon.

My husband had heard the boom. And standing there together in our home, we both heard the sirens.

Four kids home safe. Our oldest daughter wouldn’t be finishing school for another half an hour.

But what about our 10-year-old Hallel? Our musician. Our baby expert. Our comedian. Our huge-hearted daughter who had just announced to me the day before that she had finally decided to donate her long hair to Zichron Menachem to make a wig for children with cancer.

And then we turned on the radio. And we heard the old but all-too familiar sound of the hectic breathless reporting from the site of a terrorist bombing. There were many victims. From the 74 bus.

The bus that Hallel takes home from Har Nof every other Wednesday at exactly that time.

The switchboard at my daughters’ school was so swamped with calls from panicking parents that I couldn’t get through. And then all the phones in the city simply stopped working. The phone system just couldn’t handle so many tens of thousands of people calling one another to be certain that they were still alive.

So I just lay down in bed for half an hour. Numb from panic.

And then the phone rang. It was Hallel’s music teacher, and yes, Hallel had stayed late at school for her biweekly orchestra rehearsal. An hour later, a classmate’s aunt drove Hallel and her older sister home.

So I got out of bed and made my girls banana smoothies and served them bowls of hot potato soup and talked with them about the terrible events of the day, at which point Hallel stated the obvious:

“Eema, I experienced a miracle. If it had been the week before or the week after, I would have been on that bus.”*

And then I crawled into bed where I have remained now for much of the past two days. Is it a mysterious sudden virus? Or is it an anaphylactic reaction to an overdose of fear?

Below is a list of the injured from the Wednesday bombing. You will notice that the majority of the seriously injured were children and teenagers returning home from school.

I can understand that a Palestinian might have a political disagreement with Israel. But to set off a bomb timed in order to purposely kill and maim children on their way home after school?

This is an expression of pure evil posing as a political protest.

This is the guise of Amalek dancing in our midst. Yet again.

Please pray for the injured from the bombing. This list was provided courtesy of Torah.org. Please forward these names to your mailing lists so that we can storm the gates of Heaven for these suffering individuals: G-d willing all, will be granted them a complete and total recovery soon, refuat ha nefesh v’refuat ha guf b’toch sha’ar cholei Yisroel.

Ad Shapira – Ad is 18 years old and just about to complete high school. She suffered light orthopedic injuries and is in good condition in hospital.

Daniel Yehuda ben Rachel Nurit – Daniel is 13 years old, and suffered lacerations and shrapnel injuries to his lower extremities, and is likely to be released from the hospital before Shabbat.

David ben Zohara – David is the owner of the snack stand next to the bus stop. He told everyone to run away and then called the police, and was on the phone with them when the bomb exploded. He suffered injuries to his legs and feet and lower body. He is in moderate condition.

Elchanan Ovadia ben Alona – Elchanan is 14 years old, and suffered serious injuries to his feet. One ankle and three of his toes were crushed. He has had one operation and will require more surgery. He will likely be in the hospital at least 2-3 weeks.

Leah Bracha bat Shoshana Batya – is a 19-year-old seminary student. She suffered burns & shrapnel injuries to her legs, and burns to her hands as well as serious shock.

Natan Daniel ben Shulamit – a 17-year-old student who is in serious condition. He suffered massive internal injuries and has had a number of internal organs removed.

Netanel ben Shlomit – Netanel is 18 years old and works as a security guard at the bus station. He was injured in the abdomen had surgery. He is now recuperating in the hospital.

Odelia Nechama bat Michal – suffered serious head injuries and is in intensive care. Her life is still in danger.

Sasson ben Shulamit – This is the second time Sasson has been injured in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem. He suffered lower body injuries and serious post-traumatic symptoms. His wife is pregnant with their fifth child and suffering from panic and fear. Her name is Nechama bat Shoshana Shama.

Shilo ben Ofra – Shilo is 15 years old, and suffered burns and fractures to his legs and lower abdomen. He is sedated in intensive care.

Shaindel bat Raizel – Another seminary (post high school) girl learning in Israel this year was operated on last night from the Jerusalem bombing yesterday.

Yisrael ben Dina

May Hashem in His abundant mercy and kindness shield His nation and heritage, release them from all straits, and take us from darkness to light and from subjugation to redemption. Amein, may it be His will.

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*Every other Wednesday my daughter has orchestra practice until 3:30 PM, so on alternate weeks she leaves her school at 2:30 PM. That means that if it had been a week before or a week later, we thought that Hallel would have, G-d forbid, been travelling by the site of the terror attack at exactly the time of the bombing. The day after the bombing we discovered, however, that the 74 bus affected had actually been travelling in the opposite direction my daughters travel home from school every day. A small consolation from a terrifying experience.

If you stop to think about it, we all narrowly escape death on a regular basis. Every time I park my car safely I breathe a sigh of relief. It is yet another chance to remember that Hashem is the one who decides; that we are not in control.

When my father suffered a heart attack a few months ago, he described his experience lying on the operating table, totally helpless and putting his full trust in the doctor threading the catheter up his artery. I thought it was like Hashem whispering in his ear: “I could have taken your life today. I didn’t. Make sure you do something good with it.”

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